It doesn’t happen any more, because there are fewer and fewer TV shows with long theme songs at the beginning. Program philosophies have changed over the years, and the idea is to get into a show right away, before the viewer gets bored and turns on something else.
 
It’s a shame, though, because there were some great songs that fronted TV shows over the years and a few of them became bona fide hits on their own – songs like Bonanza or Peter Gunn.
 
Here are a few of my favourites.
 
Theme From Hill St. Blues By Mike Post 1981
 
Mike Post (aka Leland Postille – I would have changed it too!) wrote the theme from The Rockford Files, and both songs went to #10. In an interview I had with Post in what seems like a thousand years ago (really around 1981) he told me that he wrote the thing in less than 30 minutes. It was just one of those songs that came to him as he was sitting there thinking about a different kind of cop show. One of an increasingly rare number of instrumentals to hit the Top 10 or the charts in the later days of TV and a great show to boot.
 
Secret Agent Man – Johnny Rivers, 1966
 
This would never happened if the show had remained on the air only in Britain and had not been picked up by CBS. Back there, it was called “Danger Man” and the song wouldn’t have made any sense. It’s also a classic mondegreen, because many people swear Rivers is singing “Secret Asian Man.”
 
Happy Days – Pratt & McLain 1976
 
It replaced Bill Hailey’s signature “Rock Around The Clock” as the theme for the 50s-inspired show. Made it all the way to #5 on Billboard.  
 
Theme From The Greatest American Hero – Joey Scarbury 1981
 
A great song from a middling show, about a guy who finds a supersuit and becomes a reluctant superhero. Also known as “Believe It or Not,” the song was a bigger hit than the program that spawned it. A new version, swapping a woman for the male star, was contemplated by ABC last year, but it never – you should pardon the expression – got off the ground.
 
I’ll Be There For You –Rembrandts 1995
 
Hearing this repeated week after week after week on the hit show “Friends” helped this tune to go to the top on Billboard’s Pop Chart and in Canada.
 
Welcome Back – John Sebastian 1976
 
The theme from “Welcome Back Kotter” is not only a great song, but if I’m not mistaken, it was the first TV tune to ever hit #1. It was such a good record that the producers of the show – who wanted to call the series just “Kotter,” actually changed the name to the more familiar “Welcome Back Kotter” so they could match it to the tune. Probably the only theme in history to alter the name of a show. 
 
Love Is All Around – Sonny Curtis 1970
 
O.K. I’m cheating here. This never really achieved any major chart success but I’ll never figure out why. The original intro from The Mary Tyler Moore Show is my favourite TV theme of all time, so I just had to include it here.

Last edited by aflem (August 21, 2019 3:13 pm)